Grateful
Posted: July 31, 2011 Filed under: lunch | Tags: registry, roasted tomatoes Leave a comment »The weekend is almost over yet again, Nick is back on the bus, and I and trying to soak up the last few relaxing moments before I head to a goodbye party.
This weekend Nick and I went to a cookout at his mom’s house she she gave us a ton of tomatoes and lots of wedding gifts! ( we are having our registry gifts sent to her home because of apartment safety)
For lunch today I combined both the tomatoes and a present!
Roasted tomatoes! The toaster over I had before was bought 5 years ago and was the cheapest one I could find in Target when I moved to Boston for grad school and it had seen better days.
This baby is amazing! It can broil, toast, bake and convection oven cook. I am so excited to heat this puppy up instead of my giant oven. Such an energy saver!
Back to the tomatoes…
Stuffed with quinoa, basil, parm, summer squash, salt and pepper.
I ate the extra stuffing while I was waiting for them to cook and cut right into the baby hot out of the oven!
I still have a lot of tomatoes left. What is your favorite tomato recipe???
On another note about the amazing gift we have already received, it really nice to finally have matching towels that were not hand-me-downs (not that I didn’t appreciate them! They will become guest towels or be donated to BARCS) It is also nice to have more than one set of sheets and that are not polka-dot and from Target’s bed in a bag. We are finally growing up!
p.s. I still love my polka-dots sheets.
Stuffed Zucchini
Posted: July 27, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: curry, dinner, eggplant Leave a comment »So I went a little nuts at the Farmer’s Market yesterday and got a lot of produce but in fact not enough lettuce…anyway I thought I would post another farmers market recipe! I didn’t realize how good this was going to be until I ate it so I do not have a picture of the Cinderella eggplant before it was cooked but they are softball size and light purple with white instead of a deep purple.
To start I hallowed her out and cooked up 1/2 and onion and the guts in some olive oil. Once that had cooked for about 10min I added two zucchini fritter failures to the pan (you could just use shredded carrots and zucchini instead) and 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa.
Now those ingredients are all fine and dandy but you add some curry powder and bam! Eggplant and curry are amazing together. The only thing that would have mad this better would have been some cilantro. I cheated with parsley to make it look better.
I scooped out some of the stuffing with some Food Should Taste Good blue corn chips!
And this is what happens to my water while I am taking pictures of my food!
Bad Sissy Monster! I drank it anyway 
Time to go finish off the leftover stuffing!
Focus on Zucchini
Posted: July 26, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: farmers market, fritters, salad, zucchini 1 Comment »Time to another addition of Farmer’s Market Tuesday!
Today we have ZUCCHINI!!!
4 different varieties of zuc. Farmers tend to get over run by summer squash so you can usually get a good price for it. I got all of these plus another round light green guy for $4. So although I do love me some zucchini bread I needed something savory for dinner.
Enter baked zucchini fritters!
I started by shredding the squash, 1/2 an onion and 2 carrots in the food processor.
Then I added the dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, flax, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper and some lemon juice.
I made this bowl into 10 patties and baked 40min – 20min a side. The flavor was a bit off but I can work on that!
Served up with a little ricotta blob.
Along with my fritters I also made a huge farmers market salad! I loooove summer salads!
Head lettuce, hierloom tomatoes, cucumber, and avocado (not from FM).
I also made a homemade dressing of EVOO, red wine vinegar, basil, parsley and S&P.
I think the salad actually stole the show but the fritters were a nice chance of pace from my usual zucchini stir fries and I am thinking about turning the leftovers into a hash for dinner tomorrow!
Figgy Toast
Posted: July 25, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: figs, honey, pecans, ricotta 3 Comments »Hello, Hello! Just popping in to tell you about a delicious dinner treat I had tonight! Last fall I had kind of an obsession with ricotta chese, honey, almonds on toast. Funny enough in that post I talked about how important running is to me – I have not run comfortably since the relay marathon last October. Sad. I have been getting good at the cross training machines, swimming an yoga though!
Anyway, back to the food!
I was reliving the delicious toast and thought about how I could make it any better.
Add figs!
I love figs! So delicious – english muffin, ricotta, pecans (only nut I had), figs and my mom’s friend’s honey!
Next time I think I will go back to toast instead of the very flavorful Ezekiel muffin, but I do believe my obsession has returned and I am thinking of adding some caramelized onions to it next time! Figs + caramelized onions = amazing flavors.
How do you like to eat your figs? Do you even like figs? I also love them with goat cheese..mmmmm.
Simple Wedding : Little Detail
Posted: July 21, 2011 Filed under: wedding | Tags: BARCS, wedding 2 Comments »Today is a very exciting day for the wedding because the invites went out!!!!!
One special thing about of invites, besides the special RSVP, is the stamp! I know most people get the wedding cake or rings but we went for something that connect to the wedding and an important cause to us!
Everyone gets to have a lovely face of a rescue animal greet them in their mailbox. I may or may not have given people who hate cats, cat stamps 
I definitely gave one to our old roommate who hates cats but delt with the Sissy Monster.
Or crazy Sissy Monster is a rescue cat and we will be giving our wedding favor donation to BARCS where we found her. Our lives are better because of her and we could not image not having her furry face around. There are so many animals in shelters, please consider adoption first!
Yay! Invites are out!!!!
Farmers Market Tuesday : Okra
Posted: July 19, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: farmers market, okra Leave a comment »WeIl it is Tuesday and that means I got to venture to the farmers market today!!! I almost missed it again but this time it was because of some violent thunderstorms and not a flat tire. Like most of the country we are having a serious heat wave and my AC seems to be constantly running, so why did I even think about turning on the oven tonight??? Because I got my first okra of the season at the farmers market!!!!
My fruit guys also grow veggies and they always have multiple varieties of okra. Did you know there were different species? I love how pretty these purple ones are and even some of them were bi-colored.
So what does one do with okra?
Make okra fries of course!!!
Roasted in the oven for 20min at 375 and coated in olive oil, salt, garlic powder and chili powder. Note to self – chili powder can burn in the oven and your smoke alarm will go off.
Eat them down to the stem and don’t forget the ketchup!
What do you do with your okra?
Stay cool out there!
First Wedding Party!
Posted: July 18, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: wedding Leave a comment »This past weekend I got to see some of my favorite people and be home!
My mom had a little celebration in CT for Nick and I and even Katherine (my MOH) came down from Boston!
We celebrated with Manhattans on the rocks and I learned that there are many different versions but you can’t forget the cherry (unless you are Katherine 
)!
We had tons of food and I thought we wouldn’t have enough, Ha!
Cotswold, goat, Mahoan, blue cheese and Citrus shrimp.
Lots of my world famous guacamole with two jalapenos from the garden!
Andy was the grill master and chilled out with his Coke.
Dean and Jonathan cracked jokes and the ladies chatted on the couches.
Dinner consisted of a bunch of salads and 3 types of grilled kabobs. Three bean salad, lemon orzo salad, corn salad and a green salad with apples, grapes, cranberries and pistachios.
bobs from Whole Foods!
I didn’t get a picture of the dessert but we had CT peaches coated in heated honey with cracked black pepper and vanilla ice cream.
It was a great night with great people and I am so glad I got to see everyone from my CT family. A special thank you to Lauren and Lynn for their special wedding gifts and Dean and Jonathan for the flowers and wine!
I can’t wait until August for more fun!!
Gettin’ Crafty
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: wedding | Tags: bunting, crafting, wedding 1 Comment »As I have been going along planning our wedding I have been try to focus on décor that can be reused/recycled and be inexpensive. One option that I have been playing around with in my head is bunting.
It can be made with paper or cloth and sewer or strung. I like that there are so many options and ideas to play with for such a basic idea.
Today I finally got my craft on and starting making some bunting for the wedding!
I started with ivory cardstock and scrapbooking paper, which became triangles after many measurements.
I loved all of the patterns available in the scrapbook section so I picked a few that would go with the red/orange vibe of the wedding.
I was going to string the flags so I opted for a leaf hole punch instead of a typical circle to give it a little more subtle pizzazz!
I have 9x more of the full garland above to cover the area needing to be decorated and I think I calculated it correctly! (The one above takes up an entire wall in our spare aka wedding room)
One of the best things about doing this bunting myself was saving some major $$$. The cheapest sub I could find pre-made was $120 and this is how mine broke down:
- 200ft Juite twine – $6.99 (smallest spool they had)
- 10 sheets scrapbooking paper – $5
- Leaf punch – $3.99
- Cardstock 50 sheets – $19.99 (this also will be used for cardstock in other aspects of the wedding)
- Total ~ $36
Now the question is do I put barn stamps on the ivory flags?!??!!
Apricots!
Posted: July 12, 2011 Filed under: farmers market | Tags: apricots, farmers market 2 Comments »Today is Farmer’s Market Tuesday!
I was going to make some white bean beet burgers but I guess the fates had other plans for me when then stuck this screw in my tire on my drive to work.
When I came out to my car my back tire was totally flat. At least it happened in the parking lot and not in the ghetto that I drive through every day, otherwise my first call would have been to the police not to AAA. About 45min later my spare was on and I was on my way. Thank goodness for AAA! Seriously worth it, thank you momma beans!
Probably the most stressful thing about the tire was that I might not make it to the Farmers Market! Thankfully I got there and I was able to score some awesome apricots or apies as I used to call them when I was a kid.
I love fresh apricots because of their mild flavor and easy popability.
If you can get your hands on some this season, I highly suggest you do because they are so much different than their dried cousin.
*****Wedding*******
Want a hair preview???
Ha! I am cruel and trying to keep some things secret!
Super exciting engagement/wedding celebration party with my CT family this weekend! AND Katherine my MOH will be there!!!!!!
Raw Chard Is Just Not Happening
Posted: July 5, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: farmers market, swiss chard Leave a comment »Welcome to another addition of Farmer’s Market Tuesday!
Today at the market I picked up the last pint of cherries for the season 
, blueberries, peaches, summer squash, cucumber, mixed greens and swiss chard.
Tonight’s dinner focused on swiss chard but also involved cucumbers and summer squash.
I’ve made swiss chard roll ups before but they were too wet so this time I used tomato paste instead of tomato sauce. The filling was brown rice, curry tofu from Twin Oaks Farm, summer squash, onion and tomato paste.
I rolled the chard leaves and sunk my teeth into them. Unfortunately I cannot really handle the flavor of raw chard and had to dump out the filling to eat separately from the leaves. I need to keep my chard steamed with red wine vinegar. At least the filling was delicious and I poured it on top of my salad greens and cucumbers.
Now it’s time to enjoy some berries and cherries for dessert!
